Shahar Peer is an Israeli; she also is a promising tennis player with dreams of attaining international star status as one of the world's best 10 players. She had hoped to play in Barclays Dubai Tennis Championship but won't. Dubai considers her 'persona non grata' as a citizen of Israel. A flurry of stories hit papers around the world which made the Dubai emirate appear not only anti Israeli but anti Semitic. The eye had to mine deep into say the 'New York Times' account to learn through suggestion that Peer was denied a visa as the emirate's protest against Israel's aggression against the helpless civilian population of the Gaza strip. In story after story, the reader would be hard pressed to learn that Dubai has mainted cordial and commercial ties with the Zionist state. Jerusalem's lightning and brutal attacks against Gaza, resulting in a high number of civilian deaths, moved Dubai to break off relations with Israel. And for that reason alone Peer was denied a chance to play in Barclays' tournament. So Shahar Peer is a victim of her own country's senseless 21 day war in Gaza.
Peer has confronted protests in other tournaments that she has played in. However she was never denied entry to a country where they were being held. She was hooted and jeered because of her country's military adventure in Gaza, but not as Peer the tennis player. Jeers and cat calls never stopped her game. However the denial of a visa did. How naive did she and Barclays think that she could slip into Dubai unnoticed. Do they think no one reads newspapers or follows the ways of the world?
This attitude is the height of arrogance. Will the lesson sink in? Probably not.
If Peer thinks that she is being singled out, let her fight it out with Jerusalem. For she is but another victim of her government's eternal war against Hammas.
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